


Leonard Snart's Reckless Love

by I_can_only_imagine



Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Found Family, Gen, Leonard Snart Lives, Leonard Snart loves his Rogues, POV Barry Allen, Protective Leonard Snart, Team as Family, team flash still has a lot to learn about the rogues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28364652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_can_only_imagine/pseuds/I_can_only_imagine
Summary: Five times Leonard Snart did something reckless to rescue one of his Rogues, and one time Barry finally understood why he did it.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Leonard Snart, Barry Allen & Team Flash, Hartley Rathaway & Leonard Snart, Leonard Snart & Lisa Snart, Rogues (The Flash) & Leonard Snart
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Leonard Snart's Reckless Love

_ 1) Mark Mardon - Weather Wizard _

It wasn’t the first time the Flash and Captain Cold had crossed paths or faced off in regards to Cold’s Rogues. The bomb Lewis had put in Lisa’s head, the time Cisco had been kidnapped to build the three rogues guns, Snart freeing all of the metas that had been kept in the pipeline, most of which eventually joined up with his Rogues. All of these events happened over a year before this spiritual first time took place.

Mark Mardon had been hell bent on his revenge scheme again as seemed to be the usual when he was out of jail. Flash had noticed him breaking away from the Rogues and their usual stints, going off on his own to prepare for something big. He had even been present, frozen in place by the cold gun, when the Weather Wizard faced off against his Captain and told him that he was getting his revenge and there was nothing Cold could do to stop him. Snart had told Mardon he was being stupid, wasn’t thinking things through. He had given empty promises that they would avenge his brother when the time was right, but Mardon had seen right through them and walked out of the bank without another word.

Of course Flash having been present meant that Team Flash and the CCPD were both prepared and waiting for Mardon’s attack. Joe was used as bait but at no point was ever in any real danger, and Mardon fell right into the trap that had been set. With the Wizard’s Wand they nullified his powers and got him in the meta dampening cuffs before shipping him off to the meta wing in Iron Heights.

Three weeks passed with no action from any of the Rogues. Team Flash and the CCPD became over optimistic in their hopes that the Rogues had skipped town or at least gotten scared off the job for a while by Mardon’s easy capture. That was until the Rogues, most notably their leader, proved them wrong.

Now as good as Snart was, he had never been able to break out of or into Iron Heights on his own. His sister had intercepted him and Rory’s transfer once, and the only other times he had gotten out were with the help of Flash or Mark Mardon himself. It had left Team Flash confident that there was nothing he could do to get Mardon back with Peek-A-Boo’s powers being useless in the meta wing. They had completely overlooked the fact that one of the newest Rogues was none other than Hartley Rathaway, the Pied Piper, the only person to have ever broken out of pipeline and Iron Heights successfully and all on his own.

With guidance from the Piper through an earpiece, and equipped with one of Axel Walker, the Trickster’s newest bombs, Snart easily slipped into Iron Heights with no notice and was in the meta wing before the alarms could even be set off.

Flash got there only a couple seconds after the alarms had sounded, but the moment he stepped through the threshold into the meta wing an explosion detonated, and his feet froze solid to the ground simultaneously.

When the smoke had cleared, Snart was standing there with an unconscious Mark Mardon thrown over his shoulder and the cold gun held proudly in his hand.

“Flash,” Cold greeted smoothly.

“Why are you here Snart?” Flash asked as he struggled against the ice that seemed to be gradually creeping up his leg. “I was there when Mardon told you he was out, you should know better than anyone that you can’t force people to work for you when they don’t want to.”

“You have three things wrong there Flash,” Snart said, carefully making his way around the speedster and to the hole he had made in the wall to escape through. “One, Mark here never said he was out, he just said he was leaving to get his revenge. Two, Mark doesn’t work  _ for _ me; he works  _ with _ me, it was one of all of the Rogues' deals when they joined up. I’m their leader not their boss. And three, well Flash I’m not forcing him into anything. I’m just getting one of my teammates out of a tight spot, just like he’s done for me before. He’ll owe me one after this, but I’m sure he’ll make sure he doesn’t anymore as soon as possible. Now if you’d excuse me, the Wizard and I must make our exit here.”

Peek-A-Boo appeared at the hole, and with one last wave, the three Rogues disappeared into the night.

_ 2) Lisa Snart - Golden Glider _

It was no surprise when the second time was related to Snart’s sister. Golden Glider was still fairly new to the hands on approach to thievery, having been a con artist for years but staying out of the line of fire until she got her gold gun. She was still more experienced than a couple of the Rogues, but compared to her brother, Rory, and Mardon everything she did was with training wheels. More experience, less danger, they had noticed the pattern from the few heists Snart had let her do on her own.

This was the first heist it seemed she had done without going through her brother’s planning and approval beforehand.

She had targeted a jewelry store on the more blizzy side of the city, one she had been clearly unprepared to handle on her own and hadn’t learned all the tiny details about before executing her plan. Still, as Flash walked through the disaster of a crime scene in his civilian identity of forensic investigator Barry Allen, he could see the definite touches of Snart in there that reminded the trained eye that she was just as brilliant as her brother despite her lack of experience.

The police were trying to wrestle her into the back of a cruiser, but she wasn’t going easily. She kicked, and hit, and headbutted, and in general made it a nuisance for the officers to move her an inch away from the doorway.

Without the usual theatrics or build up of his entrances, a blast of cold energy shot down one of the officers holding Glider. Irritation broke out across her face, along with a quickly hidden relief. Chaos broke out in the crime scene and Barry found himself completely lost in it, too disoriented by the suddenness of the attack they should have expected in the first place to Flash out.

They should have known. Catch one Snart and the other will show their head. The two headed snake of the criminal world that was the Snart siblings should have been the first thing they considered.

Before he could do much of anything, the older Snart stood in the doorway with the younger reequipped with her gun and both looking ready to bolt.

Cold spared Barry one glance with an expression that was much less amused than usual. Then the two disappeared into the hot summer night without a trace.

_ 3) Shawna Baez - Peek-A-Boo _

Shawna was the first one who hadn’t gone off on her own and been captured because she was unprepared.

The Rogues had been on a heist that included most of them. From what Team Flash had been able to gather, Pied Piper and Weather Wizard were the only ones not present at the scene of the crime. Some extensive hacking by Cisco with Felicity’s help had told them at least that Pied Piper was working tech support back at their base, and Weather Wizard had been injured in a team up heist with Trickster I, James Jesse, about a week before this very heist went into action.

Barry had to admit as he watched over the security footage of their dry run the night before while waiting for them to strike that the team had become like a well oiled machine. They worked near effortlessly together these days, and it was no wonder their dry run had only been noticed by the security cameras their team had secretly installed in Mercury Labs. Captain Cold, Heatwave, Golden Glider, Peek-A-Boo, and Trickster II worked so well together Barry almost felt guilty for having to put a stop to such a well throughout heist. He would feel guilty, if they had been doing anything but committing a crime.

He had to admit he was impressed. He had known Snart was a capable man who could go up against the best of them in a battle of wits, but he had always assumed his interpersonal skills would be lacking because of his background and lifestyle. Snart had proved him wrong at every turn even early on with Rory and his sister’s near frightening dedication to him and now his ability to pull together a team of such different people and get them to work together like a professional crew who had been at this game together for years.

The silent alarm he had secretly installed in Mercury Labs the night before after they had left post dry run had been set off, and in the blink of an eye he was at Mercury. He found he might have been slower than he thought, because the Rogues had gotten much further than they should have been able in the short amount of time.

He realized too late that it was a trap. He cursed himself as he caught Snart’s smirk in Flashtime. He forgot too often these days that Snart wasn’t alone in planning his heists anymore, he wasn’t the only brains in the operation. Hartley Rathaway was a factor he continuously overlooked and he had to stop that quickly before it actually got someone hurt further than first degree frostbite and burns.

Before the meta dampening net they had more than likely stolen without their notice during their dry run could fully drop, Flash managed to reach out and grab on to the closest of the Rogues. Peek-A-Boo was trapped under the net with him before she could even think about using her powers, and for a split second Flash thought it might be panic he saw on the Captain of the Rogues’ face before it was hidden behind the usual mask of cold indifference.

“Don’t be stupid Snart,” Baez barked at her leader. “Go.”

After just a second more of hesitation, Cold gave a curt nod and turned to run with the others.

“Don’t worry Sha, boss won’t let you spend even a night in that cell,” Trickster promised her over his shoulder as the group disappeared around the corner.

By the time the CCPD and Vibe got there to help unlock and untangle Flash and Peek-A-Boo from the high tech net, the Rogues were long gone. Peek-A-Boo went easily as she was transported to the STAR Labs Pipeline instead of the Iron Heights prison in hopes to keep the Rogues from breaking her out.

The hopes were useless. Barry knew they would be the moment Shawna Baez was smiling back in her old cell as if they were the ones truly in the cage.

Snart was alone, as he had been the past two times, when he arrived to retrieve his crew member. He did it in broad daylight as if it were nothing, having no regard for weather or not he got caught. Barry realized that was the whole point, Snart didn’t care if he got caught, his only goal was getting Baez out, and getting her out he did before they even knew he was there.

Her cell was already open by the time Barry and Cisco got down to the Pipeline. Caitlin used the emergency switch to shut off all the lights and hopefully block out Peek-A-Boo’s vision, but Snart had pre planned this. His gun started to glow, and the fire of the cold blast gave just enough light for Baez to follow the light with her teleportation until they were outside in the natural light.

_ 4) Axel Walker - Trickster II _

Axel had been an unpredictable player since the day he entered the game, and none of Team Flash had ever really known what to think of him.

The man was smart, they had figured that much out upon their very first meeting even if they weren’t sure he himself realized how smart he was. Over the years they had been dealing with him, he had seemed to learn just how smart he was and gained the confidence he had lacked under his father and mother. The last year, with him fully teamed up with the Rogues and his parents long out of the picture, was what had made Team Flash and the CCPD finally declare him as a much larger threat than possibly the first Trickster and Prank combined.

A sleeper genius is what Cisco had called him when a homemade bomb by the man had nearly knocked Flash, Vibe, Frost and Elongated Man all out at once, the bomb having carefully been crafted to include components that negated each of their powers.

Of course the news of Trickster II’s growing power had spread enough to catch his father’s attention, and Flash found that for once it wasn’t him or the CCPD that Snart was up against to retrieve his Rogue.

James Jesse had done the usual Trickster and Prank routine of hijacking the airwaves to cast his plan to all of Central City. The image that appeared on the TV was of one of the Trickster’s layers, specifically a stage inside where Axel Walker sat gagged and tied to a throne.

“So this is supposed to be your new king of mischief,” Trickster I’s sing-song voice said as he entered the frame.

Barry felt something cold and sick turn in his stomach at the sight and the Trickster’s bitterness. This was the man’s son he had kidnapped, his son he seemed to be setting up to kill. Trickster II was a villain, sure, but they wouldn’t let the man be killed by his own father whose approval he had once been so desperate for.

It didn’t take long for Cisco to Vibe where Jesse was keeping his son, and only halfway through the Trickster’s monologue they found themselves in an abandoned balloon factory with Elongated Man.

They were still searching for the stage where the two tricksters were when they heard a shout and a fight break out across the factory. They got there in no time, but still they were all too slow. Trickster I was writhing on the ground clutching his blackened hand and screaming while Captain Cold finished cutting the ropes holding Walker to the chair.

When his hands were free, Walker yanked the gag from his mouth and pushed himself off the throne.

Flash would never admit to it, nor would Elongated Man and Vibe, but they just stood in the shadows and watched as Trickster II walked over to his father and crushed the heel of his boot down on his frostbitten hand, the one that had surely held the gun meant to kill him.

“I think it’s time to retire old man,” Axel said, looking down his nose at his screaming father. “Like you said, there’s a new king of mischief in town, and he’s here to stay.”

Axel lifted his boot and didn’t even bother kicking off the frosty blood from his heel before walking back to cold.

“There’s a bomb,” he said matter of factly.

“I know,” Snart said, and Flash was almost sure he saw a smile on the Rogue’s lips. “Let’s get you back to homebased kid.”

Then they were gone.

“Um, guys,” Ralph said carefully. “Bomb?”

“Oh shit,” Cisco snapped into action just in time to open a portal to get them back to STAR Labs when the stage blew to pieces. The news would report that evening that Trickster I had been far enough from the blast to survive, and had been transported back to Iron Heights where he was back in his own special wing of isolation.

_ 5) Rosa Dillon - The Top _

“Has anyone else noticed how weirdly reckless Snart has been lately?” Cisco asked one day in the Cortex while they were all eating their lunches.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Caitlin said. “All hisheists seem more in order than ever, we haven’t even got close to catching him for the last three.”

“That’s not what he means,” Ralph said. “And yeah Cisco, I’ve seen it. It’s like when one of the Rogues gets captured he loses all of that critical thinking.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Cisco shook his head. “I know Snart doesn’t let people mess with his crews, but they’re not even really his. Like you said Bar, he told you they don’t work for him, and a few times they’ve gotten caught and they’re not even working with him.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Barry agreed. “But since when did Snart ever make sense? For all we know he has something big planned and he needs them all available for it.”

“Now that sounds more like Snart,” Cisco said.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear they say. Right after Cisci finished talking, the alarms in the cortex went off alerting them to a problem at Iron Heights.

With the click of a key Cisco pulled up the security feed, and for the second time in two months there Snart was in the meta wing at Iron Heights.

Barry, Cisco, and Ralph all suited up, refusing to be caught off guard this time, while Caitlin set up to work the comms. Cisco opened a breach and in the next second they stood in Iron Heights Meta Wing, staring completely caught off guard as Snart bickered with the woman he was working on opening the cell of.

“I didn’t ask for you to do this,” Rosa Dillon said from inside her cell. “I could have gotten out on my own.”

“She you could have,” Snart said, not bothering to mask his sarcastic disbelief. “Let me ask you this then, why would such a capable woman able to get herself out of this cell have gotten caught in the first place?”

“Because those specs you gave me were old,” Dillon snapped. “They didn’t include a fucking warning that they installed a new security system.”

“How were we supposed to know they installed a full new security system overnight,” Snart snapped back at her.

“So Top is working for you now,” Vibe said, startling both villains as he revealed their presence.

“She’s working  _ with _ me,” Captain Cold said at the same time Top said, “I don’t work  _ for _ anyone.”

“She’s a Rogue,” Vibe corrected himself.

“Lisa forgot to mention they gave the crew one of their cute little names,” Top said.

Flash could imagine the way Snart rolled his eyes, but had no way of knowing if he really had with the man’s back still turned to them. They had gotten so distracted they forgot what they were supposed to be there for until the cell glass froze over and shattered completely, letting Dillon step out a free woman.

Before they could so much as move an inch, the two Rogues had turned on them. Elongated Man started stumbling back and forth until he hit the ground, and Cold froze Flash’s feet to the ground. That still left Vibe open, but the moment he tried to step forward and attack, Top rushed forward and sent a perfectly placed hit to his temple to disorient him.

“Nice seeing you again Scarlet, we really must stop meeting like this,” Cold said, all his grim seriousness from earlier replaced with his usual wit. “Then again, I don’t suppose we will, so I’ll see you next time.”

Snart and Dillon strutted past them and out of Iron Heights, and by the time Cisco came to, the ice had melted, and Ralph was on his feet again, they were gone.

_ +1) Hartley Rathaway - Pied Piper _

It had been a long time since they had dealt with the Pied Piper in person.

Ever since he had joined up with the Rogues about a year before, Snart had kept him far away from in person heists, in a safe house or base of operations that they could never seem to find no matter how hard they tried. He worked tech support, and weapons, and the planning of the heists had his little touches all over them, but there was no sign of the man ever picking up his gauntlets and coming after them in person again.

Barry supposed that might have been why they took so long to realize the thief who had broken into the CCPD twice, robbed a bank, and crashed a ball all in one week was him.

The attacks were meticulously planned and clearly connected, but they couldn’t figure out how until the second break in at the CCPD that happened to take place while Barry wasn’t supposed to be at the precinct but was.

He had rushed down the stairs and found half of the officers in a daze as they moved in a jerky way that told him right away they were under some kind of mind control.

“What did you do to them?” Barry heard Joe ask from where he and the other officers were held up near Singh’s office, all of their guns drawn and aimed at a figure in a dark green cloak.

“Nothing that is hurting them anymore than the last time detective,” and right away Barry recognized that voice, and all the pieces fell into place. The first break in at the CCPD, everything they had on the Rogues and a couple metas who were out and about had been taken with a bug released in their system that sent a system shut down and reboot every time they tried to access the criminals' files. The bank robbed was the one the Rathaways and a few other old money families kept their money in. The ball had been one that the Rathaways were in attendance for.

Just a pick at the officers under the mind control told Barry they were moving items confiscated from the Rogues. Weapons, pieces of tech, and even a few suits and clothing items. Some of the items they were moving didn’t even have anything to do with the Rogues, and Barry assumed they were things the Rogues intended to use in the future.

He flashed into his suit, and without warning sprang into the room toward the Pied Piper. When Hartley turned to him, he didn’t seem surprised at all, just mildly inconvenienced. Barry didn’t have time to register that Hartley didn’t have his gauntlets and was instead holding what seemed to be a flute before the first note reached his ears the same time as Joe’s shout, and he froze.

The note vibrated and echoed in his head, bouncing around and drowning out all other thoughts until the Piper was the only thing he could see or hear, everything else lost to a fog.

“Sleep,” the Piper said, and he saw no reason to disobey. There was no point in fighting, he wasn’t in danger anymore. He was safe in the sound. He could just lay down and sleep for a few minutes…

When his eyes opened again the haze was gone and he could immediately recognize his surroundings as the medbay in STAR Labs.

“What happened?”he groaned, carefully pushing himself up onto his elbows. There was a relentless founding in his head, along with an empty feeling of aimlessness. He needed to be doing something, but he didn’t know what. The need to move, to be productive, crawled under his skin and made him itch. Just laying there for the minute he had been awake filled him with an anxious energy.

“About time you were up,” Cisco said, coming to stand by his bed. Caitin and Ralph weren’t far behind, all three of their expressions filled with concern and carefulness.

“What happened?” Barry repeated his equestion, blinking at them as he tried to fight down the energy.

“You got knocked out dude, you and the entire CCPD present at the station,” Cisco said. “Apparently while he’s been in hiding, Hartley developed a new weapon for himself.”

“He hasn’t been answering any of our questions about what the weapon did to you or any of the officers,” Ralph added.

Before he could ask, Caitlin started to explain, “All of the officers have woken up and are physically okay, and no negative changes showed up on any MRIs. They reported feeling a lot of energy they didn’t know what to do with, and fair amounts of anxiety, like they were forgetting something important they were supposed to be doing.”

“Yeah, I feel that,” Barry nodded. “And Hartley?”

“He’s in the pipeline,” Cisco said. “We took away his flute, and gave him the ear pieces we made last time we had him there.”

“Good,” Barry said. The universe was apparently intent on contradicting him, because just a moment later the alarms for a breach in Pipeline went off.

“Didn’t you guys say this Hartley kid is the only meta to have ever broken out of Pipeline on his own?” Ralph asked.

“Didn’t think he could do it without his exploding ear pieces,” Cisco grumbled.

“His what?” Ralph looked between them all for answers, but none of them gave them as Cisco pulled out a remote from his pocket and dialed it up halfway. Just a second later the expected scream rang out on the speakers from the accelerator hallway.

“What the hell,” Ralph whispered softly, looking between them once again for answers.

“Hartley was deaf before the Particle Accelerator exploded,” Caitlin explained, a pained expression playing on her face from the pained screaming. “He had an implant that allowed him to hear. When the Accelerator exploded, it reacted with his implant and gave him extremely enhanced hearing, but he developed severe tinnitus as a result. He described the sound and pain as screaming once. He has to wear ear pieces to block out the tinnitus and control how extream his hearing is.”

“The first time he was here, the earpieces turned out to be mini bombs he used to escape Pipeline with,” Cisco continued. “We made him these earpieces when we caught him again. They work the same as his old ones, but instead of being mini explosives, they give us control over his hearing. This control controles what frequency he hears and acts almost like his tinnitus but worse. It’s how we keep him from getting away even when he gets out of Pipeline or incapacitates one of us.”

“Okay,” Ralph said slowly, an unreadable expression on his face.

They all made their way down to the hallways where Harltley had stopped screaming, but was keeled over on the ground panting and crying. Barry felt a pang of guilt despite the memories of the people Hartley had hurt, and whatever it was that he had done to him back at the precinct.

Hartley was back in his cell in no time with the controller turned off, and was regaining his breath as they started to talk.

“Harley, you can’t just break out,” Caitlin reminded him. “You earpieces…”

“I know,” Hartley snapped breathlessly. “It was a rude reminder.

“What did you do to me and the other officers?” Barry asked.

“What do you call it again? I whammied you.”

The four heroes looked between each other then back to Hartley.

“How?” Cisco asked.

“My flute,” Hartley waved a hand. He pressed his back to the wall and sank down it, hands still at his neck while the tips of his fingers missaged below his ears. “That’s all I’m telling you after  _ that _ .”

They relented in not getting any more answers from him that day and went back up to the cortex with Hartley’s cell as the live feed. Just a few hours later, when the day had turned to night, the Pipeline was once again breached. They hadn’t been expecting it so soon, but sure enough when they looked from their diner to the feed, Leonard Snart stood in the Pipeline with Hartley’s cell opening.

Hartley had passed out soon after they had left him, Caitlin saying he was probably exhausted from the pain the frequencies caused. He didn’t stir until Snart had picked him up in one arm, and quickly calmed down from his mild panic when he recognized who it was.

Barry flashed down to the Pipeline, not bothering with his suit.

“Snart,” he called to get the man’s attention. Snart turned to him, and Barry couldn’t hold back the flinch at the downright murderous look in his eyes. It was a look he hadn’t seen in years, not since his sister’s life had been threatened by their father…

And with that thought it clicked. Snart’s reckless behavior the past couple of months as he saved his Rogues from captivity suddenly made sense, and the way he held Hartley like someone precious only solidified it.

“They’re your family,” Barry could help the shocked words from escaping his lips.

“And no one messes with my family,” Snart said in an icy tone that matched the effects of his gun. “Either you get me his ear pieces and his flute, or I put everyone here on ice.”

Barry nodded and immediately led the captain of the Rogues to the cortex. He moved to get what had been asked of him while Snart stood with his gun drawn and Hartley still in one arm. Hartley had removed their ear pieces and was cringing at the screaming pain he was sure to be feeling by the time Barry handed him his ear pieces and flute.

When Hartley had his ear pieces in, Snart carefully lowered him to the ground but kept a protective arm around him, both serving as a way to quickly pull him away from them and keep him steady on his feet.

“Pull anything like that again and I will kill a member of each of your family slowly, and painfully, and in a way completely out of their control,” Snart threatened.

Barry nodded and watched as Snart and Hartley left the labs.

“Why did you let him go?” Cisco asked.

“Because we broke one of the deal’s rules,” Barry said simply, still staring at the doorway. “We hurt someone he loves.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments give me life so if you liked the story feel free to leave some.  
> Come find me over @what-if-i-imagine on tumblr where my asks, prompts, and requests are always open.


End file.
